Husky Green Awards 2012

The third annual Husky Green Awards winners were announced at the celebration for Earth Day during HuskyFest by Ruth Johnston, Associate Vice President, UW Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability, Finance & Facilities. Six of fourteen nominees listed below were chosen as award recipients for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Storm Hodge

Assistant Director Dining Services, Housing and Food Services

Storm Hodge oversees campus food services and the purchasing of over 8.5 million dollars in food and beverage purchasing. Through his leadership and direction, we have strived to buy more sustainably produced products that are sourced locally amounting to 54% of our overall purchases. Storm dedicates dining resources to ensure we continue to capture over 650 tons of waste per year that continues to be diverted to composting and away from landfills. As a department, under his leadership, we have spread the word on a national level, our composting and purchasing program; entertaining schools and business entities from around the country, touring our facilities and making resources available to drive sustainability initiatives at other institutions of higher learning.
Other programs Storm has allocated resources to include the Student Biodiesel Coop, the UW Farm, our coffee roasting carbon footprint reduction, the transition to locally produced milk, and the UW Student Food Coop.

Cheryl Wheeler & the Patio Display Garden team

Patio Display Garden Team, UW Tower Green Team

Cheryl Wheeler established the Patio Display Garden committee in 2008. The team's first project was replanting four planters in the courtyard of the UW Tower with low-maintenance herbs, fruits and vegetables. Since that time, Cheryl and her team of dedicated volunteers have replanted an additional 8 planters, converted an ivy and garbage-filled plot into a vegetable, berry & herb garden, replanted planted a soggy, ivy-filled pit with huckleberry bushes which they reclaimed from the landscape around a campus building which was being demolished, and donated fresh vegetables and herbs to the University Food Bank. The team regularly sponsors events where, in exchange for a donation to the University District Food Bank, participants can enjoy free treats, such as ice cream with garden strawberries, lingonberry crepes, fresh herbed focaccia bread and huckleberry muffins. Their efforts have not only beautified the Tower grounds, but have also encouraged tower occupants as well as general passersby to try their own hand at this easy method of food gardening.

Katie Stultz

Katie is involved in numerous actitivies that have made the UW a much more sustainable institution and her interest in institutional change and advocating the student voice has been her legacy. Katie worked with three other students to establish the Campus Sustainability Fund in 2009/2010, served on the CSF Committee in its first year 2010/2011, and is currently the Student Engagement Coordinator for the CSF. She served as the ASUW legislative coordinator in 2011 and often lobbies for environmental issues and more at the state level. She established the Green Tea Party in 2011/2012, a networking group of UW RSO’s and related youth external organizations interested in sustainability. Katie worked to establish ASUW resolution in support of incorporating sustainability into the curriculum 2011 and has been following up with the Dean of the College of the Environment and other key groups on campus to make this into a reality. Katie is a very involved Community Environment and Planning major, and has been involved in the CEP committee, Headlights, which is the committee responsible for maintaining the vision of the major, where she provides an environmental sustainability focus, which is a cornerstone of the CEP major.

Washington Student Athlete Advisory Council (WSAAC)

The members of the Washington Student Athlete Advisory Council (WSAAC)—specifically Terence Thomas and Gareth Gilna— have created a way to reward student-athletes who put forth an effort to help make the campus more environmentally friendly. Each year, the student-athletes at the University of Washington participate in a program called the Dog Bowl. This program pits Husky athletic teams against each other, with the goal to raise their academic, athletic and community efforts to the highest level. Points are earned through a variety of activities,and at the end of the year, the team with the most points wins a prize along with the Dog Bowl trophy. This year and in future years, thanks to Galina and Thomas, teams can now earn points for a variety of green activities. The categories include providing and managing proper recycling systems for the locker rooms, creating/participating in community events that promote sustainability, furthering awareness of sustainability activities in the athletic department through the media, and implementing a program that promotes sustainability. Thomas, for example, helped execute the recycling of used tennis balls by arranging a program in which they are donated to I.E.D dog trainers from Fort Lewis. WSAAC also plans to create a Green Award of its own, which will be rewarded to the team with the most “green points” at the end of the year.

Dean Pearson

Gardener Lead, Intercollegiate Athletics

Dean Pearson began working at the University of Washington as a Gardener Lead for the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics in the summer of 2010. In addition to his duties preparing soccer, baseball and softball fields, Dean leads the clean up process following each football game in Husky Stadium. He personally oversees the crew that sorts the compost, recycling, and garbage after each game. Since his arrival, he has changed the process of cleaning the stadium from sorting recycling and garbage to sorting for compost as well. He has adjusted the steps and staffing to accommodate this shift in process. The crew now “reverse sorts”, which means the garbage is picked out and then everything else that remains in the stands is recycled and composted. Dean is also an enthusiastic member of the ICA Sustainability Committee. He suggested the implementation of the “Green Minute” on football game days, in which ushers collected recyclable bottles from the fans while a video and public address announcement encourage fans to compost and recycle. Dean’s integral role as a member of the Sustainability Committee and as the leader of the clean-up crews have contributed significant this past year to the increase in composted and recycled materials in Husky Stadium from 29% in 2009 to 43% 2011.

Justin Hellier

Graduate Student, Evans School of Public Affairs & College of Forest Resources

In the first year of an intensive graduate program, Justin joined a group of inspired undergraduates as part of the Campus Sustainability Fund (CFS) Working Group. The combination of passion and competence that he brought to the work played a major role in CSF’s ultimate success. As the instructor for the Program on the Environment’s Sustainability Studio, Justin worked closely with nearly a hundred students over five quarters to envision and implement sustainability on campus. Under his leadership, his course has become a laboratory for sustainability experimentation and leadership development. Taking a close look at campus sustainability in terms of water, transportation, food, and biodiversity, he mentored student teams to perform cost-benefit analyses, take up behavior change research, and propose infrastructure improvements. Several of these student teams went on to present before University committees, and seek and receive funding from CSF. As one example of his dedication, he maintained role on campus sustainability fund board to see through its impact.